Systems that provide virtualization environments are known. Such a system may include host servers that are execution environments for virtual machines, a storage apparatus including physical volumes, and a management machine that manages the entire virtualization environment, for example.
In a virtualization environment, volumes for storing data are virtualized, and thus volumes visible from a virtual machine are virtual volumes. Data in virtual volumes is stored in storage areas in physical volumes associated with the virtual volumes. Thus, an operating system (OS) or applications running on the virtual machine can utilize the virtual volumes without being aware of the physical volumes.
Virtual machines executed on a host server, or volumes used by the virtual machines are managed by a management machine. For example, the management machine stores information on a relation between virtual volumes and physical volumes, and manages the volumes based on the information.
In the meantime, an application running on a virtual machine may carry out a copy (e.g., backup) of a volume in a storage apparatus to another volume, utilizing a function provided to the storage apparatus.
Patent Document 1: Japanese National Publication of International Patent Application No. 2015-520423
Patent Document 2: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2010-55548
In a virtual machine, upon copying a volume, a copy participant volume may be designated by information that is recognized by the virtual machine (e.g., the device name of the virtual volume).
On the other hand, in a storage apparatus that stores data in the virtual volume into a physical volume, the copy participant volume may be designated only by information of that physical volume (e.g., physical volume number).
However, as set forth above, the information on a relation between virtual volumes and physical volumes is managed by the management machine, and hence the virtual machine does not have the information.
Since the information on the relation is managed by the management machine as described above, processing of copying a volume by the virtual machine can become complicated, and the processing time of the copy is sometimes prolonged.